Now, while I do think it was lovely, it wasn't particularly happy, nor uplifting. It starts off on a tragic note - a death that happened three years in the past which proves to be the connecting thread in the lives of a number of diverse people. The PoV switches between various of these people throughout the book, and it's really interesting to see how the author has woven them all together - including some surprises (both for us, and for the characters involved). It takes place in England, which is a bonus for me, unashamed Anglophile that I am. It's a story about sisters, and family, and love and death and fidelity. Quirky characters, but mostly likeable. The book ends on a bit of a subdued note, as well . . . but it's such an interesting tapestry that I didn't even mind, even though I'm usually a sucker for a "happy" ending. ::grin:: ( )

Wikipedia in English

Barbara Trapido's golden novel about loss is an Alice in Wonderland for grownups. From its haunting start--"Early on in the morning of my interview, I woke up and saw my dead sister"--to its final, endless irony, The Travelling Hornplayer zips with plot twists and character turns, shocking revelations and desperate reactions. Any attempt at summary is dizzying, but here are a few hints: for three years, Ellen Dent has been devastated by the loss of her younger sister, who had struck famous novelist Jonathan Goldman as having "the pleasing air of one who plans to easily pass through this life, collecting admirers at tennis parties." Nonetheless, Lydia's charmed teenage existence had come to a quick end, courtesy of a car, outside Jonathan's North London flat after his daughter, Stella, turned her away, mistaking her for his mistress, Sonia. Sonia herself will later crop up in the Cotswolds as the temporary lodger of Jonathan's beloved wife--and I won't even begin to unravel Stella's super-disconcerting tale. I will, however, say that the book contains several other matchless, larger-than-life characters and strands, which mesh together into a sparky, tragicomic puzzle.

In Trapido's world all is not what it seems, to put it mildly. She is a gifted comic writer because she knows tragedy is just around every corner. Since 1982 and the publication of her Whitbread-winning novel, Brother of the More Famous Jack, her buoyant, allusive roundelays have proved that she has a knack for the ways gifted families work--and the ways they most definitely do not. She is also a brilliant commingler of life and art. Her third novel, Temples of Delight, is an inventive riff on The Magic Flute, while her fourth, Juggling (inexplicably, never published in the U.S.), sets forth a key Trapidian tenet, the superiority of Shakespearean comedy over tragedy: "Survival is admirable. It is more difficult than death, since it takes more energy and guile." The Travelling Hornplayer seems to have been inspired by both Conrad's Heart of Darkness and William Müller's lyrics, "which Schubert, under the cloud of his own recently diagnosed syphilis, managed so brilliantly to layer and elevate into a profound, bombarding symbiosis of love and death." This tantalizing novel is no less layered--though, given her comic genius, elevation isn't exactly Barbara Trapido's style. --Kerry Fried

When Ellen Dent's sister, Lydia, is knocked down by a car outside Jonathan Goldman's London flat, her death has far-reaching and entirely unexpected consequences. Jonathan, for instance, is on a train at the time, travelling toward his wife and house in the country. An admired novelist, he has just said good-bye to his mistress, the gladiatorial Sonia, and is planning to repair his fractured marriage, but fears that he has been outwitted by Sonia's wiles. He is also expecting a visit from his daughter, the mad, bad Stella - once a sickly child, now a flame-haired cello player with a genius painter lover.
After her sister's funeral, Ellen returns to university in Edinburgh, but finds that things have changed. Her house mates from the previous year have left - olive-skinned Izzy, Stella of the cello, and Pen, her indispensable companion - leaving behind them a drawing and an old copy of Heart of Darkness. Lydia's death reveals new and surprising truths about everyone whose lives she touched, and as the story unfolds and the past opens up, a wonderful dance of death and love is unveiled.… (more)